Monday, December 10, 2012

Teaching at Wat Mano

Every day at 1:00 I bike to Wat Mano which is the oldest temple site in Luang Prabang. I lock my bike to the temple steps while young novices in orange robes yell out “Hello teacher Molly!” There are 3 classrooms – the computer room, Group A and Group B which both have new whiteboards hanging up thanks to GVI’s Charitable Trust Challenge money. The whiteboards make it much easier to teach because we can use different coloured markers and blue tak will actually stick to the board! The students are complete beginners and range in age from 11-15. We start each class with the novices standing while the teachers nob (or Lao greeting, involves placing the two outstretched hands together in an inverted V in front of one's face.) and say "Good afternoon students, how are you today"?
Right now Group A is learning body parts and today we played the game Simon Says. Group B have just finished prepositions and are working on sentences with prepositions and playground items such as “The ball is under the swing”. The novices love to practice gestures for different words, play games and work on the computers. Every night they have a homework assignment that we write in their homework books. At the end of the year each novice will get a prize if he comes to class and does his homework on a regular basis. After class the novices stand up and thank their teachers by saying “Thank you teachers. See you tomorrow”. While I unlock my bike they watch me, giggle and yell out “Sok Dii!” Good luck!

Share/Save/Bookmark

0 comments: